Scott Kelly and the Road Home‘s “The Field that Surrounds Me,” taken from 2012’s The Forgiven Ghost in Me (review here), is one of those songs I go back to when I’m absolutely out of my mind. Needless to say, it’s come up a couple times since the album was released, and so I’m pleased to see Kelly and his Neurosis bandmate Noah Landis bringing in Munly J. Munly of Slim Cessna’s Auto Club and Munly and the Lee Lewis Harlots as a full-time member and moving forward with the project. Re-dubbed The Road Home, the trio will embark on a 12-date tour starting Jan. 22, joined for a couple shows by Mike Scheidt and linking up with the Karma to Burn/Sierra tour for a gig in there as well.

Hopefully they come east at some point so I can intend to go see them and, should I actually manage to do so, get pulled over on the way. Because that’s what happens every other fucking time I try to leave the house and go someplace in this godforsaken over-copped perma-gray wintry hellhole where I live. Fuck everything. Cool project though. I got sidetracked. Sorry.

To the PR wire:

THE ROAD HOME: Scott Kelly Solo Venture Takes New Form With Full-Time Members Noah Landis And Munly J Munly

West Coast Tour Dates Begin Next Week

With the addition of new full-time members, the project forged as SCOTT KELLY AND THE ROAD HOME — orchestrated by Neurosis’ founding guitarist/vocalist, Scott Kelly — has since taken a new form as simply, THE ROAD HOME.

Neurosis’ keyboard/effects wizard, Noah Landis, has been a part of the project since the creation of SCOTT KELLY AND THE ROAD HOME’s 2012-released debut album, The Forgiven Ghost In Me, providing baritone guitars and keyboards to the record and on stage. Yet, since his role in the outfit has become much more expansive and significant, in both inception and delivery of the tunes, his place in the lineup has therefore become more permanent. Additionally, renowned singer/songwriter Munly J Munly has joined the group in recent months, helping reshape the band’s sound. An iconic folk/country/gospel multi-instrumentalist who has helped shape the contemporary sound of Denver, Munly is part of several current acts, including his own Munly and the Lee Lewis Harlots, as well as Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, Denver Broncos UK and others, with releases on Smooch Records, Alternative Tentacles and more, in addition to being an awarded author, and so on.

Issues Kelly of the current state of THE ROAD HOME, “We changed the name because with the addition of Munly and Noah’s already prominent role in the process it felt that this had become a band of absolutely equal parts in every way. We will be working on new material throughout the year in preparation for a new record.”

As their next recorded chapter comes together, THE ROAD HOME’s new lineup will be playing live whenever possible, beginning with a newly-confirmed Western US tour which begins next week. From Thursday, January 22rd through Wednesday, February 4th, they will traverse through California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho and Washington with twelve dates confirmed.

Additional tour and release news on THE ROAD HOME will be confirmed and announced in the months ahead.

Neurot Recordings released SCOTT KELLY AND THE ROAD HOME’s debut outing, The Forgiven Ghost In Me, in August 2012. Dissimilar to his previously-released solo outings, on this recording Kelly sought out additional musicians to help bring his written vision to fruition, recruiting the talents of Greg Dale and Noah Landis, as well as guest contributions from Jason Roeder (Neurosis, Sleep) and Josh Graham (A Storm Of Light, ex-Neurosis). The Forgiven Ghost In Me, flows with over forty minutes of foreboding Americana showcasing the ever-evolving artist brandishing some of Kelly’s most expressive hymns of pain, reflection and redemption to date.

I’ll be completely honest: I’m not sure what all this means, but it would seem that Roadburn is going to be an even more packed weekend than I thought. Not sure where I got the impression, but I was fairly certain the festival was done adding toits lineup, and while I know there were a couple spaces that opened up on account both of Buzzov*en not being able to make it and the unfortunate loss of Selim Lemouchi, I think that’s accounted for here and then some, so maybe Roadburn isn’t done yet. Is it possible there’s still more to come? How much festival can one festival hold?

Following on from the 2013 festival, we’re very pleased to continue our artist clinics at this year’s Roadburn.

The clinics proved to be a great opportunity to give those of you attending the festival, many of whom are in bands or enjoy playing music on your own, and some some folks on the bill the opportunity to meet and learn from each other.

This year we have invited Neurosis‘ Scott Kelly and Mike Scheidt of YOB, a pair of sonic trailblazers playing a seminal role in creating punishing, slow, melodic and atmospheric pieces of work and both a huge influence on all things Roadburn. Both Scott and Mike are the embodiment of the spirit of the festival and we are looking forward to hearing them talk about their craft, artistically and musically. We feel very honored that Scott and Mike will give an insight in their creative spirit.

“I am honored to asked by my great friends at Roadburn to take part in this clinic”, says Scott Kelly, “I will bring myself to the table as clear and open as humanly possible. And I will answer any questions that you have to the best of my ability. I hope to see you all there.”

Scott Kelly and Mike Scheidt‘s artist clinics will be held on Friday, April 11th at the V39, located across from the 013 venue in Tilburg, The Netherlands.

Roadburn Festival 2014 will run for four days from Thursday, April 10th to Sunday, April 13th 2014 at the 013 venue in Tilburg, The Netherlands.

We’re very excited to announce that Änglagård, Reine Fiske & Nicklas Barker and Papir have been confirmed for Mikael Åkerfeldt‘s curated 2014 Roadburn event on Friday, April 11th at the 013 venue in Tilburg, The Netherlands.

“I’m so happy to announce that Änglagård is taking part in my curated day at Roadburn 2014”, says Mikael Åkerfeldt, “If you don’t know them they are one of the three (together with Landberk and Anekdoten) pioneers of the second wave of Swedish prog /psychedelia. Just like the other two bands their sounds are heavily focused around the ghostly presence of the mellotron, yet the three bands sound nothing the same.

“I last saw them ”alive” last Summer and I was quite floored. Their show will be a winding musical journey of light and shade. Beauty and… the beast? Never mind my ramblings. They are amazing and you will love them. Just shut up!”

“Reine Fiske is in my opinion the best guitar player from Sweden and with that, one of the best in the world”, continues Mikael Åkerfeldt, “He’s got an ethereal quality that I’ve not heard anywhere else. And teaming up with the lord of dark psych and hellfire, Nicklas Barker just cannot fail.”

I’ve no idea what these cats are up to for Roadburn 2014, but I do know it’ll be fantastic. I do know there will be a Fender Stratocaster (yes, Reine?) on stage, and a mellotron. I will be there. Watching. Worshipping.”

“Denmark’s Papir will create their own extraordinary type of semi-improvised psychedelic rock by transcending the usual labels”, says Mikael Åkerfeldt, “Moody and unexpected twists and turns seems to be their trademark. Psych legends of the future? The band will appear twice at Roadburn but both sets will bear no resemblance to eachother. Exciting!”

Nothing To Make Their European Debut Appearance at Roadburn Festival 2014 with One-off Show On Thursday, April 10

We’re elated to announce that Philadelphian shoegaze four piece, Nothing, will make their debut European appearance at the 2014 festival on Thursday, April 10th at Het Patronaat in Tilburg, The Netherlands.

Nothing‘s first full length album, Guilty of Everything – released this week via Relapse Records – has elicited an overwhelmingly positive reception worldwide from fans and critics alike.

The nine tracks of guitar driven, darkly introspective shoe gaze deliver uplifting, life affirming melodies with one hand, and plunge into dark, despair with the other, and we’re confident that Guilty of Everything will rank among the very best Roadburn-releated albums of 2014.

Having premiered the track ‘Bent Nail’ from Guilty of Everything earlier this year, we’re very proud to host Nothing for their first show on European soil.

Roadburn Festival 2014 will run for four days from Thursday, April 10th to Sunday, April 13th 2014 at the 013 venue in Tilburg, The Netherlands.

Partnering alternately with Syndrome, The Leaving and Oldseed, Scott Kelly and the Road Home will begin a run of European tour dates this week that will carry them through the rest of this month and into next, supporting 2012’s The Forgiven Ghost in Me (review here). This will reportedly be the first time the trio of Scott Kelly (Neurosis), Noah Landis (Neurosis) and Greg Dale hit the road together in Europe, so not that you needed an excuse to go if you happen to live or find yourself in that part of the world, but you’ve got one just in case.

Dates and a promo video follow:

Scott Kelly and The Road Home: European Tour 2014

After nearly 100 European Shows Scott Kelly, guitarist and singer of Neurosis, proved that his solo work stands out alone.

Now, for the first time, he will come to Europe with “the Road Home”. His Band. The Band that recorded the highly acclaimed Scott Kelly and the Road Home – “The Forgiven Ghost In Me” LP/CD.

The Road Home are Noah Landis of Neurosis (Keyboards/Sounds) and Greg Dale who lately was on tour with Neurosis.

The track “We Let the Hell Come” would wind up as one of the most memorable songs on Scott Kelly‘s 2012 Scott Kelly and the Road Home album, The Forgiven Ghost in Me. Interpreted with subtle, still-minimalist interplay of electric and acoustic guitar and Kelly‘s mournful, gravel-throated wonderings, it was a highlight of the record (review here), engaging with a sweet, sad melody and the persistent strum of Kelly‘s strings. Little in that version would link “We Let the Hell Come” to its prior interpretation — the song having been performed over two years earlier live by Shrinebuilder.

At the very start of the video below, filmed at Skully’s in Columbus, Ohio, as part of the 2010 Scion Rock Fest – Shrinebuilder headlined that venue for the night; YOB, Pelican, Acrassicauda and others also played — the band says that “We Let the Hell Come” will be on the next record. It may well still be, but more than three years later, a follow-up to Shrinebuilder‘s 2009 self-titled debut (review here) has yet to surface, and with the band’s members — Kelly (also in Neurosis), Scott “Wino” Weinrich (also in The Obsessed andSaint Vitus at this point, as well as putting out solo material), Dale Crover (the Melvins) and Al Cisneros (Sleep and Om) — busy with their respective main outfits, it may be that Shrinebuilder was a one-time planetary alignment that we won’t be fortunate enough to see again.

If that’s the case, all the better that clips like this one of “We Let the Hell Come” are out there — the song also showed up on Shrinebuilder‘s Live in Europe 2010 vinyl, which I regret not buying when I had the chance — to give a sampling of what might’ve been or, who knows, might still be when and if there’s a second Shrinebuilder outing. This video was filmed by Chris Kimbrough and I hope you enjoy and have an excellent Wino Wednesday:

I guess this show and the circumstances surrounding have become something of a tale to tell. In 2010, the supergroup Shrinebuilder were en route to play Roadburn and tour Europe to promote their self-titled debut and only album to date. Coming from the Western Seaboard, where all the members of the band — Scott Kelly and Wino on guitar/vocals, Al Cisneros on bass and Dale Crover on drums — were located, they got as far as New York before their flight was grounded like so many others at the time.

Not to be completely undone by that volcano — whose mere name, Eyjafjallajökull, strikes syllabic terror into the hearts of pronunciation guides everywhere — Shrinebuilder booked themselves a last-minute gig at Brooklyn’s Club Europa. While they were in town, they also recorded a session with Andrew Schneider for Coextinction Recordings that’s been featured here before. They had been to New York for a show about a month before and of course around the time the album came out as well in 2009 (review here), but as it was such a bizarre situation, and as they haven’t been back since, the Europa show has taken on a mystical kind of quality — not that anything these guys did wouldn’t already have had one.

Shrinebuilder did finally get to Europe, and they played Roadburn in 2011 as not the only act on the bill to be carried over from the year before. A self-released Live in Europe 2010 vinyl commemorated the experience, but since they basically started out as a headlining act because of the members’ pedigree in Neurosis, Sleep, Saint Vitus (etc.) and the Melvins, those earlier Shrinebuilder shows featured a couple covers, and on this one from Brooklyn of Creedence Clearwater Revival‘s “Effigy,” Crover and Wino show a classic rocking side of Shrinebuilder that was unlike anything else they did.

Somebody’s Range Rover had broken down in the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, so the traffic getting across to the St. Vitus bar in Brooklyn was a cruelty. The Patient Mrs. had business elsewhere in the borough as well, so we carpooled and sat for about an hour, waiting, inching forward, honking, being honked at, staring at the billboards for Soylent Orange or whatever it was, waiting. Waiting. Mostly it was waiting.

I was still early to the show, though, which was the live debut of the supergroup (they need to come up with a new tag for “band made up of people known for being in other bands”) Corrections House, whose lineup reads like a list of influences. Mike Williams of Eyehategod on vocals, Scott Kelly of Neurosis on guitar, Yakuza‘s Bruce Lamont handling sax, backing vocals and noise, and producer/Nachtmystium member Sanford Parker – permanently linked to the largely unmatched crush of Buried at Sea in my mind — acting as warden behind a podium with the band’s logo draped on the front, his laptop, sampler, drum machine adding to the experimental edge and providing the rhythmic base of the material.

The concept for the show was pretty complex. Two bands were opening: noise trio York Factory Complaint and blackened noisemakers Theologian, both NY-native. After them, each of the members of Corrections House would come up for a brief 10-15 minutes of solo work, then, once they were pieced together on the stage, a Corrections House set would close out the night. It was a cool theory, and it felt even better to know that St. Vitus bar was the first time they were trying it out, but I guess my concern going into it was how they’d actually make it happen with each member doing something different, what the order would be and how many songs Corrections House, as a band, could possibly have.

Answer? Three or four songs. But it was a long road to get there. York Factory Complaint went on at about 10PM, so I knew right away it was going to be a pretty late night. All the gear was backlined behind and around the outfit — which lists itself as a four-piece so perhaps someone was missing — who sat and knelt on the floor of the stage in front of their vintage-looking manipulators, Moogs and whathaveyous. Their noise was, well, noise. As advertised. Screaming vocals gave some inkling of structure, but there wasn’t really a verse as such, just lines spit over harsh audio.

I guess that’s going to happen from time to time, and for what it was, I thought the presentation was cool and the ambience creative. I always wanted to start a noise project with equipment hooked up to giant walls with knobs on them that I could dress as a mad scientist in a labcoat and run from side of the stage to side of the stage turning like a fool. Of course, with neither the money for equipment nor a knack for working with oversized knobs, it’s resided in the pile of band ideas next to my one-man black metal band with no music because nothing sounds kvlt enough and my doom project with lyrics based solely on the themes of Final Fantasy games.

York Factory Complaint was much simpler in their approach, and Theologian likewise, though the Leech-led live trio — which included Fade Kainer of Batillus on, you guessed it, synth and noise — were a little more grounded, relatively speaking, and had a projector going behind and over them while they played. That didn’t do much to make the sounds any friendlier or more accessible, but the point was the experiment, and their complex wash of synth, effects-laden vocals and array of abrasive screeches felt all the more purposed for its bleakness of mood. A couple toms on the side of the stage manned by Matt Slagle provided human-driven thud when called upon, and Leech‘s voice became as much a part of the wash as anything else. I wondered how they’d serve as a lead-in for Corrections House, but with Sanford Parker up first crafting a noise barrage of his own, it made more sense than one might have expected.

Dressed as all the members of the band would be in a black button-down withCorrections House logo patches sown on the arms and a larger logo on the back, Parker set quickly to work laying a bed of industrial-style beats and noisy flourishes. Samples came and went muddled by the surrounding swell as Parker, lost in the rhythm, continued to construct the sound one element at a time, even picking up a mic and manipulating feedback from it. After a while, Lamont joined him on stage, picking up his baritone sax and running it through a pedal board of his own, soon doing the same with some vocalizations and even scratches on the microphone that ran along the border between experimental and obnoxious. It can be a fine line sometimes.

Williams appeared unceremoniously on the side of the stage, holding a notebook, and gradually, Parker and Lamont brought the noise down to a steady drone. This actually worked really well, because in his reading — Williams in addition to fronting Eyehategod has done spoken word for a while now and has a book of poems called Cancer as a Social Activity– he gripped the mic, yelled and often had space to pause for the sound behind him filling what would otherwise have been silence tempting people in the crowd to talk over him. I’ve been to that kind of gig before and it’s excruciating, but whatever else you can say about Williams, he’s charismatic like few others I’ve seen on a stage. Like a magnet for eyeballs.

His poems/writings ran through a litany of post-beat disaffection, navigating a gamut of vague imagery and all-too-specific chemically-added grit. It’s hard to critique a written work by hearing a reading, but his delivery could change in a line from tragic and solipsistic to engaging with smiled charm, and not without interrupting the flow of a piece, and that’s worthy of commending. As he read, Kelly made his way to the front and took up position at the side of the stage, fresh off two rare East Coast Neurosis gigs, in Philly and at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple for a weekender preceding the launch of this tour. Lamont and Parker were still up there as well, the former kneeling in front of his pedal board in attentive semi-meditation and the latter tucked away behind his podium.

Closing out his portion with an extended poem that was a series of purposefully ridiculous claims ended by the refrain “That’s what the obituary said,” and finally ending it with what he seemed to make his own concerning his many-storied history of drug abuse — there was some mention of “finally kicking the habit” — Williams then made way for Kelly to run through a couple songs. This turned out to be something of a side-step, since each of the preceding additions of personnel to the stage had added to the atmosphere of what would become Corrections House, whereas Kelly‘s material is more straightforward and more definitively solo. Even “The Sun is Dreaming in the Soul,” which featured a second guitar on last year’s The Forgiven Ghost in Me(review here), was wholly Kelly‘s own despite complementing ethereal backing vocals from Lamont. I’m not about to complain for getting to watch Scott Kelly play his solo material — that can only make a good night better — but it was a turn from the process of building Corrections House on the stage, since what he was playing as part of the band turned out to be heavier, darker and more fitting to the rhythmic pulsations of Parker‘s drum machine.

Once they were all there, again, Corrections House only had three, maybe four songs to play. The difference was it had already been about an hour, so it was more like an extended encore than a full set. I wasn’t about to complain. Aside from Kelly playing angrier and with more distortion, there wasn’t much about Corrections House that hadn’t already been revealed. A digital “leak” of their “Hoax the System” video had given some idea of what to expect, and the other material they played followed suit, once more leaning on the line between organic darkened heavy and industrial coldness. Williams spat fury with his characteristic nihilism, Lamont kept up with Parker in laying the foundation of noise, be it with his sax or mic or both, and where once there wasn’t one, an increasing swirl of chaos ensued. It was all I could do to realize how far we’d already come by the time Corrections House were into their second offering.

They wrapped with an extended take on “Hoax the System,” its insistent rhythm playing out steady as the final tide of feedback rolled over it and just about everything else, Williams seeming to hold on against the rush with repetitions of his last lyrics urging the title. It was nearly 1AM by the time they were done, and I knew The Patient Mrs. was waiting, so I was quick out the door of the St. Vitus bar and back down the block to where she’d parked and was waiting for me to drive back to Jersey. Fortunately, whoever’s Range Rover it was had been towed by then. Small favors.

Pretty much the whole way through, this show wasn’t what I’d expected or planned on. From the traffic getting there to Williams taking the frontman spot then relinquishing for Kelly only to resume it shortly thereafter, to Lamont‘s mic-scratching, to the clear-road record time I made to the valley afterwards, the vast majority of my preconceived notions of what Corrections House would be had turned out to be in need of — forgive me — correcting. That’s what they got, anyhow. Rumor has it a 7″ is in the works, after that, who knows. But whatever might come next for these guys in this collaborative form, at least now I know why I’m anticipating it.

Starting next week, the new underground supergroup Corrections House hits the road on their first tour, kicking off with a live set at the Saint Vitus bar in Brooklyn. To give a little taste of the devastation in store, the unit — comprised of Mike Williams of Eyehategod, Scott Kelly of Neurosis, Bruce Lamont of Yakuza and Sanford Parker of Nachtmystium, Buried at Sea and everybody’s production credits — have just unveiled their first video, for the song “Hoax the System,” on which Williams blows out his anthemic misanthropy atop pulsing industrial-type beats and harsh feedbacking.

If it seems like kind of a no-brainer to mix performance footage and nature shots to make a Scott Kelly video, it’s only because the songs are so damn organic. My Proud Mountain oversaw the putting together of this clip for “The Sun is Dreaming in My Soul,” from this year’s Scott Kelly and the Road Home full-length, The Forgiven Ghost in Me (review here), which is fitting, since they also released the album in the UK and Europe.

Kelly is on the road currently in that part of the world, and you’ll find his remaining tour dates courtesy of the PR wire after the video below. Please enjoy:

Scott Kelly’s solo tour is now underway and his only UK show at London’s Black heart is looming.

My Proud Mountain have this week released a brand new video for the song ‘The Sun Is Dreaming In The Soul’ – taken from his latest solo album The Forgiven Ghost In Me.

During this tour, Scott Kelly will play songs from his two most recent records which also includes, Songs Of Townes Van Zandt as well as The Forgiven Ghost In Me, both released earlier this year on My Proud Mountain in the UK/EU.